More funds for Little LeagueDUNEDIN – At its Oct. 18 meeting, the Dunedin City Commission unanimously approved a change order for $28,996 to the existing contract regarding the renovation of the existing Little League concessions and restroom building at 1861 Harvard Ave.

The contract is to the Stamper Construction Company of Tarpon Springs. Funds are budgeted in the parks and recreation CIP account, where there is $56,379 in project balance available, according to a memo to the commission from City Manager Rob DiSpirito.

The additional work costs that this will cover includes reconstructing the roof for a new exhaust hood, electrical design for the new concession equipment, installing upgraded electrical service, furnishing and installing new air conditioning, installing new ceilings in the concession and office rooms, replacing the water supply pipe and water heater, constructing divider walls in the concession room, and replacing restroom toilet partitions.

Solid waste disposal contract approvedDUNEDIN – The Dunedin City Commission, at its Oct. 18 meeting, unanimously approved to award a contract of about $213,532 to Angelo’s Recycled Materials, Greenway Recycling, Inc. and Consolidated Resource Recovery for the disposal of solid waste materials. Tom Burke, city engineer, said that this would be continuing the current contract for services with this organization, which is continuously a very low price for the city’s biological solid waste disposal.

Public announcementsDUNEDIN – At the Oct. 18 Dunedin City Commission meeting, the commission and staff had a number of announcements.

City Clerk Denise Schlegel reminded the public that elections are coming up and that people can find their precinct location at the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections website at www.votepinellas.com. She also announced a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 19, 6:30 p.m., at City Hall that will serve to recognize the election results and to swear in the new city commission members.

City Manager Rob DiSpirito informed the commission about the re-publishing of Dr. Willis S. Blatchley’s “My Nature Nook” book, and requested funding from either the city manager or the commission’s budget. Commissioner Julie Ward Bujalski said she is comfortable with taking the funds from the commission funds, and the rest of the commission unanimously agreed.

There are 140 copies of this book being reprinted, with book No. 1 going to the city, DiSpirito said. The Dunedin Historical Society had looked all over for a copy of the book and could only find one single copy online. The reprinted copies will be leather-bound and produced entirely within the city except for the leather binding, which will happen in Clearwater. Blatchley was an entomologist, botanist, ichthyologist, ornithologist and pedagogist and came to Dunedin in 1913 and built a home, now called the Blatchley property. In this book, he wrote his observations of plant, animal and human life, and it is the only documentation of life in Dunedin in the 1900s. There will be an official unveiling and start of book sales at a ceremony on Nov. 11.

DiSpirito also announced that the next southside meeting will be postponed to Tuesday, Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m. at the Hale Center’s largest room, due to an increase in the number of people planning to attend and the addition of food being made available, thus creating the need for a larger room.